


Moving On

by apeppermint



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Character Study, Gen, One Shot, Post-Dark Side Of Dimensions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 10:47:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10014851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apeppermint/pseuds/apeppermint
Summary: Post Dark Dimensions, Yugi has a run-in with Kaiba and the Pharaoh. He also has a run-in with getting up and living life.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based on an illustration by Kazuki Takahashi on his instagram. (It's obvious which is the one, if you know what the one is. Even if you don't, it's pretty easy to figure out.) Not edited well. Sorry.
> 
> Thanks for reading.

Kaiba hadn't come back. 

He'd expected to speak with him again after the "tournament," but he hadn't reappeared. Vanished. Everything seemed to have vanished.

The "tournament": over. Graduation: over. Anzu in New York. Bakura in London for a reason he'd been mysterious about. Honda already at work with his dad. Jounouchi at his two part-time jobs (mascot character at a theme park and cashier at a movie theatre). 

It was quiet now. Life had calmed down.

Yugi tinkered with the game he dreamed to make real as he stood behind the counter at his grandpa's game shop. It was two PM. Dead time. Yugi always used it as an opportunity to bang out the particulars, to rethink how the pieces moved, how one won or lost. He scribbled this all down on notepads after notepads. The clock in the corner ticked away. Grampa sometimes came down to see how it was going or trade off with Yugi when his shift was over, but otherwise, Yugi was alone.

He’d held out hope for excitement in other quarters. Like, say, leaning from the news the next crazy thing that Seto Kaiba had under his sleeve. But nothing. Just Mokuba at press conferences, at unveilings. 

The Millennium Puzzle gone for good.

It felt like everything he used to know had slipped through his fingertips. He'd been content at school once the Pharaoh had passed on, but Aigami had kicked it all up inside him again. He was okay with the Pharaoh being gone, really. 

It was just that...

It was for real this time. There was no more adventure. Just the kind he made himself. Which really wasn’t the easy to engineer, now that he was as normal as the next guy.  
Yugi sighed and set down his pen. He wasn't getting anywhere today. If only just one person would come in and buy something. He needed the distraction from the gloomy turn of his thoughts. He stared at the door and willed the passersby to enter, but nothing doing. He sighed again and flopped forward onto the counter. So much for being an adult. He still felt like high schooler, to be honest.

"I wished for friends, huh? I could use one right about now."

That came out more bitter than he intended. The isolation was turning him sour. 

_Partner._

They were on the rooftop of Domino High. He must've been eating lunch, or something, but he seemed to be alone. That was weird, because ever since he'd had the puzzle, that hadn't been a thing. It always the four of them, at least. Bakura joined in more and more toward the end there. 

The Pharaoh was at his side, dressed in his ceremonial garb, staring out on the city with a strange wistful look.

_You shouldn't call me anymore._

"What? But I didn't. The puzzle's gone. I couldn't even if I wanted to." Yugi looked at his profile and hoped that he could see, from the corner of his eye, the determination in his eyes. "I'm fine, now. Really. You can go. You can rest."

_It's a tad hard to when an old face won't let bygones be bygones._

He turned to Yugi and smiled. 

"What do you mean?"

_He's all right. I've already sent him home._

He took Yugi's hand without provocation. Yugi tensed up, thousands of feelings overwhelming him. Their connection was humming between them, so close that Yugi could almost complete it. The temptation was so strong he tried to pull away instinctively, but the Pharaoh held firm.

 _Thank you._

"Yugi, we have a customer."

Someone was shaking him. Yugi picked up his head. He had a groggy understanding that the Pharaoh might've been a dream, and that Seto Kaiba standing before him was not. Grampa was shaking his arm. 

"Well? No hello?" Kaiba said, and Yugi woke fully. He straightened so fast he might've broken his spine. It wasn't exactly the best impression to make on Kaiba since the Aigami incident months ago.

"K-Kaiba? You're--where've you been?"

Kaiba tsked. He looked the same as usual, dressed in his white overcoat and leather underclothes. He looked a little thinner, sure, and maybe a tad—gaunt? Actually, he didn't look that great at all. Pale, bony. His cheek bones, which had already been rather pointed to begin with, stood out especially, as if his skin had thinned out on them.

"You don't look well, Kaiba," Grampa said in a soft, sympathetic manner. "Out doing something foolish, I presume."

"Shut up, old man. That's none of your concern. What I was doing, Yugi, was facing nothing but disappointment. And here you are, being useless as ever."

Yugi felt the old irritation—Kaiba was probably best compared to a grain of sand in your tear ducts—flare up again. As much as felt that Kaiba might be a friend, or something like it, he was still impossible to be around at times.

"Did you just come here to make fun of me? What do you want?" And then, because he couldn't but be worried, "Does Mokuba know your here?"

"It's not Mokuba's business where I go. I'm just here to give you this." He reached for something within his coat and tossed it at Yugi, who blindly held out his hands. It was something cold and sharp and he fumbled with it for a second before he was satisfied with his grip. He parted his fingers.

The eye of the Millennium Puzzle as it had been when he completed almost four years ago.

Electricity shot through Yugi's body.

"But—It was—It's—"

"He told me to give it to you. That's all. Goodbye." With a flutter of his coat, he marched toward the game shop door. Grampa muttered something about spoiled kids and their money under his breath, but Yugi was staring, flabbergasted, between the puzzle piece and Kaiba's retreating back.

It was like old times. The puzzle, and Kaiba, going where no one should. But he wouldn’t be Kaiba if he didn’t.

 _Thank you_ echoed again from the far reaches of his memory. 

_No, Pharaoh,_ Yugi thought, though he knew that it had already been said, that his partner had already understood. _Thank **you**._

"Kaiba," Yugi said as the bell chimed, and Kaiba was half out the door. He paused over the threshold.

"What?" he demanded, without turning around.

"I'm—I'm designing my own game, not for fun, but for real. Something that can be played by everyone. It'll be just as good as Duel Monsters. It might take some time, but eventually, I want you to play it with me. When the prototype's done." Yugi breathed in deeply, his heart pounding as if he'd run miles without stopping. Kaiba was very still. Grampa had placed his hand on Yugi's shoulder. "I want you to be the first. Please."

Kaiba's hand rested on the doorframe. There was a silence which seemed to stretch on for hours.

"That's a weighty claim, Yugi. If it's better than Duel Monsters, then I'll play with you. Only then."

And then he was gone, as suddenly as he had come.

"Your friends are pretty remarkable, Yugi," Grampa said, hands crossed behind his back.

"Yeah." Kaiba would be all right. Mokuba would make sure of that. His goal, which had flagged since he'd made it, burned brightly within him. He pressed the piece to his heart.

_I won't let you down, Pharaoh. When we meet again, I'll be standing strong. I promise._

"Ah," Grampa cried as the jingling of a ring tone filled the air. "Those things always startle me! It's yours, isn't it Yugi?"

Yugi pulled his cell phone from his pocket. Jounouchi. Yugi answered it.

"Hey, Yugi! Why haven't ya been answering your texts? Everybody's having a burger at Burger World, and we were gonna invite ya, but everyone's already finished up while you was ignorin’ us. We can still hang out, though. You ain't busy?"

Yugi looked to his grandfather, who wouldn't've been able to avoid hearing Jounouchi even if he wanted to, because he was talking so loudly. Grampa smiled and nodded. Yugi's heart soared.

"Yeah, I can take a break. See you in a minute?"

"Sure thing, Yugi!"

Yugi was out the door before he even hung up. The day was hot and humid, but his mind was too full with joy to notice it. He slipped the puzzle piece into this pocket, felt it swing heavily against his thigh. 

The Pharaoh would've chuckled to see him, almost skipping. Somewhere, he felt he was.

His life was really beginning, now.


End file.
